Privatefly announces Los Angeles in top three global destinations for private jet travel

Fort Lauderdale, FL (May 11, 2018) – PrivateFly has revealed its most popular routes, aircraft models, prices and booking habits of U.S. private jet travelers. Los Angeles tops the charts as the busiest U.S. destination for their travelers in the first quarter of 2018 and the third most popular destination globally, after London and Paris respectively.

The insights are from PrivateFly’s latest edition of Private Jet Charter Trends, which looks at the booking and flying behavior of its global private jet customers during January to March 2018 (Q1). The private jet booking service sees over 100,000 flight searches per month on its website and app.

Geoff Villano, Senior Vice President of Sales and Operations at PrivateFly comments, “Los Angeles has always been a strong private jet market in the US. Its recent rise to prominence in PrivateFly’s global top three marks a shift that reflects its economic importance, as well as PrivateFly’s growth in the region. Its role as an epicenter of sports, entertainment, culture and business make Los Angeles a natural pivot point.”

The most popular U.S. route overall for PrivateFly travelers is Los Angeles to Las Vegas. A short hop by air, this trip costs from around $6,000 in a Phenom 100 with 4-6 seats.  Or, for those flying in style, a Gulfstream GIV model makes this journey with 14-16 passengers for approximately $13,000.

“As two of the major hub cities on the West Coast, it’s no surprise that both business and leisure travelers traverse the LA-LV route,” says Villano. “The prominence of Las Vegas as a convention city coupled with its reputation for being America’s adult playground make it a natural private jet destination.”

Longer distance, it’s the New York to Los Angeles route that comes out on top. These two coastal giants are rivals when it comes to high-level commerce and culture, so the air space between them is busy year-round with private jets. Aircraft options for this journey include the Hawker 800 with eight seats for about $46,000 one way. Other options include the Challenger 300 seating eight passengers at $60,000 or the Gulfstream models G450 or G550 starting at about $90,000 to $110,000. Similar results show for other coast to coast trips such as Boston to San Francisco. Though not as long, Miami to New York is another perennial favorite often making use of the Phenom 300 which seats seven and starts at $22,000 one way.

Among other notable U.S. routes, Miami to the Caribbean is a common inquiry. Clients often charter a turboprop or small jet such as King Air models or Citation II as these smaller planes can reach smaller islands, where the runways at their airports can be too short for commercial airliners.

In addition to the routes and aircraft, PrivateFly’s report features other noteworthy findings such as booking behaviors and passenger preferences. Leading these behaviors is the continued evolution in booking habits. The proportion of customers using mobile is now equal to desktop at 46%, and significantly up on the same period in 2017.

“Booking a private jet online even on a desktop was unheard of just a few short years ago,” says Villano. “But now customers think nothing of using their smartphone to search and book, via an app or optimized mobile site. And the technology allowing them to do that faster and easier – including PrivateFly – is on the rise. This trend will only increase as emerging millennial customers become the core private jet users. While our average customer is 39 years old, those using smartphones are younger, with our biggest age group for mobile users 25-34.”

In addition, Los Angeles as the third top destination, US manufacture Cessna commands the most popular charter maker list. The first, second and third of this list include Cessna Citation Mustang, Cessna Citation CJ2/CJ2+ and Cessna Citation XLS/XLS+.